Brussels, 05/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission approved its first review of environment policy, an initiative whose essential aim is to take stock of developments since 2001 and to highlight priority issues in environment policies at EU and national level. It has mainly been a question of defining the most pressing dangers, mainly with a view to EU enlargement and political developments at international level.
Examining Community measures relating to the environment, the Commission stresses the need to disassociate economic growth from pressure on the environment. The main challenge in coming years will be to elaborate balanced policies which stimulate growth and employment while protecting the environment and human health, by optimalising synergies between actions taken at the level of the EU and at national, regional and local levels.
Internationally, the EU has played a decisive role in the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol but the Commission remains worried: the EU as a whole, as well as its Member States are not succeeding in reducing the objective of reducing greenhouse gases by 8% from 1990 and the first commitment period of 2008-20012.
Bio-diversity: the EU has made a concerted effort to elaborate its policies for respecting the ambitious objective of preventing environmental degradation by 2010 but the results are mixed, given the resistance of several Member States in the application of certain directives ("Birds and Habitats"). The elaboration of bio-diversity indicators allowing for a better overview of current trends is an initiative that the Commission is sticking to, in collaboration with the European Environment Agency. Human health: the Commission welcomes the REACH system, which compels industry to provide information on the effects of chemical substances on health and the environment, as well as precautions to take during their processing. It has also set about elaborating a new strategy to cover the risks, more broadly, of different pollutants on human health, notably for the most vulnerable groups such as children.
Finally, the re-examination describes political developments in resource management. The Commission is planning to develop a sustainable development programme on natural resources, a strategy that will be combined with accompanying initiatives, such as integrated products policy, the strategy on waste prevention and recycling (currently being set up) and the action plan on environmental technologies, which will be presented soon.